


The Boy In The Lake

by Jojosugay



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-06 13:16:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jojosugay/pseuds/Jojosugay
Summary: On his way to school Keith makes friends with a new boy that he finds in the lake.





	1. Elementary

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Mini SFX Keith bang! The Tumblr blog is [ here ](http://keithminibang.tumblr.com)
> 
> Special Thanks to my bang partners!
> 
> You can see the amazing Art piece that Orchidd made [ here ](https://0rchiddart.tumblr.com/post/175609249322/completed-keithminibang-piece-for-boy-in-the)
> 
> and you can find my friend and beta [ here ](http://littlebird12j.tumblr.com)
> 
>  
> 
> I can't think of a better way to celebrate my 18th birthday by giving my favorite "big brother" his long over due birthday present. Love you, Daniel I hope you like the fic <3

On a bright and sunny day when Keith and his big brother Shiro were walking to school, Keith spotted a boy about his age swimming in the lake. Keith wondered, Why is he there? Doesn’t he have school? And where are his parents? Shiro’s words began to fade off into the distance as Keith quietly wandered toward the lake without Shiro noticing until he was practically swimming in it himself. He shuffled his feet in the sand, watching the boy swim around. The boy in the lake had dark brown hair that complimented his flawless, caramel skin. When the boy spotted Keith, he jumped slightly and sank into the water, everything below his dark blue eyes hidden.

“Hey, what’re you doing in the lake?” Keith called out, taking a step closer and allowing the water to slowly wash up against his sneakers.

The other boy narrowed his eyes. “I...I got too hot so I jumped in for a swim,” he called back. “What about you?”

“Oh, I was on my way to school, but I saw you all alone, and I wanted to keep you company for a little bit.” Keith smiled, cutely showcasing the gap where his front tooth used to be. He looked down at the sand to make sure he wasn’t going to land on anything before he plopped down at the edge of the tide.

“You have schools up here too…?” the boy asked in amazement, swimming a little closer to the shore.

“What?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head a little.

“Uh...N-nothing. Thanks for keeping me company. You can go now. Bye,” he stammered nervously and began swimming away from Keith.

“Not until I get your name.” Keith grinned, wiggling his butt in the sand and sitting up taller; he would happily wait there all day just to get his new friend’s name.

“Lance! My name is Lance! You can leave now. Goodbye,” shouted Lance.

“Hi, Lance! My name i–”

“KEITH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WE’RE GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!” Shiro interrupted in his booming, big brother voice. Keith knew this voice all too well.

Keith quickly scrambled to his feet, brushing off as much sand as he could. He looked over to see Shiro’s angry look, and he quickly gathered all his things before waving goodbye to his new friend. “Bye! I’ll see you later! Don’t stay in the water too long, or you’ll get all pruney and gross. The fish probably won’t like you invading their house like that either.”

Lance nodded, blushing and waving goodbye to Keith. Then he sunk his mouth under the water, blowing little bubbles. Keith ran back up to his brother’s side and buried his face in Shiro’s shoulder, hugging him as tight as his little 8 year old muscles could and whining when his big brother attempted to shove him off.

“Keith, shoving your face in my shoulder isn’t gonna stop me from being mad at you and texting mom and dad! I thought something happened to you! I was this close to calling the police before I saw you sitting down by the lake,” Shiro snarled. He finally managed to pry off the whiny third grader and grab his hand. “If you wander off again, I’m not coming back for you!”

Keith nodded sadly. He wasn’t ready to go home and have his parents take away his stuffed red lion for wandering away from Shiro— they did that when he got lost in the mall last week. The rest of their walk to school was quiet, not including the long lecture Shiro gave about what happens to little boys who wander off without their big people. Keith didn’t pay attention though; all he could think about was Lance. Even though Lance answered all of his questions, he couldn’t help but feel that there was something Lance was hiding. Something had seemed strange about him.

Despite having a rocky start to his morning Keith ended up having a good day at school. One of his assignments was to draw a picture for a friend, so Keith drew a hippo for Lance. Keith wanted to make his new friend a gift. During recess, he ended up scraping his knee and crying a whole lot, but the playground supervisor put two spiderman bandaids on it, so Keith felt better. After the bell rang, Keith sat in his seat, holding his lunchbox and wearing Shiro’s old teenage mutant turtle backpack. He left out his Hippo drawing and a red crayon so that he could ask Shiro to help him write their address on the back. That way Lance would be able to come over and have play dates! He swung his legs back and forth as he patiently waited for Shiro. Shiro walked in six minutes after the bell rang, his backpack hanging off of one shoulder.

“Let’s get going. We have taekwondo practice tonight.”

“Wait!” Keith shouted, bouncing in his seat impatiently. “Help me write our house number and address on the back of my drawing! I wanna give it to my friend so he can come over and play sometime.”

Shiro sighed, walking over and tossing his backpack on the table. “I’m gonna teach you, not help you, okay?”

Keith nodded, excitedly flipping over his drawing and holding his crayon. He quickly attempted to write his full name. “Shiro, what’s my middle name?”

“You don’t have one, bud. Not everyone is given one,” Shiro said with a kind smile.

“Does that mean I get to pick one?” Keith asked excitedly.

“Sure, why not.” Shiro chuckled at his little brother’s enthusiasm. “What name did-”

“RAPHAEL,” Keith shouted, immediately writing ‘Keith Raphael Kogane-Takashi’ on the back of the drawing.

“Like the ninja turtle?” Shiro asked.

Keith nodded quickly with big smile. “Help me write our address now!”

Shiro smiled and told Keith their address and home phone number, correcting him when he wrote the three backwards.

“Is that all you need help with? Can we go home now?”

“We gotta stop at the lake! So I can give this to my friend!” Keith announced, standing up straight after he pulled his book bag on and offered his hand to Shiro.

 

Shiro sighed playfully before standing up and grabbing Keith’s hand. “Alright, but we can’t stay too long. We both have chores to do before mom and dad get home,” he explained. Keith nodded quickly and pulled his brother out of the classroom, basically running so he could get ahead of Shiro’s long legs.

Keith got tired halfway to the lake, resulting in Shiro carrying him on his back. Keith felt like Yoda on Luke Skywalker on Dagobah.

“I hope he likes hippos. Hippos are too nice not to like. Do you think he’ll like his hippo?” Keith asked, looking at the picture he drew.

Shiro shrugged hard so that Keith bounced on his shoulders a little bit, which caused them both to laugh. “I’m sure he’ll like it just because you made it for him.”

Keith nodded a little, sighing and resting his chin on Shiro’s head. He resisted the urge to fall asleep while he looked at his drawing. He hoped it was a good hippo. He wouldn’t want to create an evil hippo for his new friend. That wouldn’t be very nice. Against his will, Keith slowly fell asleep. His quiet snoring making some small pieces of Shiro’s hair fall out of place.

Keith woke up on the couch under his favorite Snork moomin blanket. He sat up with a loud gasp, rubbing his eyes as hard as he could. After Keith made absolutely sure that he was at home, he screamed for his brother in an upset panic.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Shiro shouted, running into the living room.

“I didn’t get to give Lance his present!” Keith shouted, jumping off the couch.

“You wouldn’t wake up, and I had stuff to do, so I just took you home. We can give him his present tomorrow.”

Keith pouted, crossing his arms. He couldn’t believe that he fell asleep on the walk home! He hadn’t done that in over a week! Shiro rolled his eyes.

“If you keep pouting, I’m not gonna give you your after school snack.”

Keith gasped at Shiro’s blatant threat. He slowly uncrossed his arms, forcing a neutral look on his face. “May I please have my snack now?”

“Of course you may. Let’s go to the kitchen.” Shiro made his way to the kitchen with a small laugh.

Keith smiled, happily running after Shiro and climbing up on one of the bar stools at the island. He folded his hands in his lap, sat up straight, and kept quiet to show his manners. Shiro always liked it when Keith showed his manners. Sometimes Keith even got extra.

“What’s the magic word?” Shiro asked, holding a plate of cosmic brownie squares.

“May I pretty please have my space brownies, Shiro?” he asked with a huge grin.

Shiro laughed, sliding the plate in front of Keith and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Keith scarfed down all three of his brownies, getting crumbs all over himself and the counter. He pushed the plate away afterwards and gave Shiro a big, brownie filled smile. Shiro shook his head a little and handed Keith a hand towel.

“Do you wanna come up to my room so we can do our homework together?” Shiro suggested with a fond grin.

Keith nodded, quickly cleaning his crumbs off the counter and hopping down from the stool.

 

It was a while before Keith saw Lance again. He kept the picture in his backpack so that when he finally saw Lace again, he’d be able to give it to him. He even made Shiro stop at the lake on their way to and from school every day. It only took about a week for Lance to show back up at the lake, and Keith ran into him on his morning stop there with Shiro.

“Lance! Where’ve you been!?” Keith shouted, sprinting across the warm sand. He dumped everything from his backpack onto the sand so that he could find the picture quickly.

Lance silently swam farther away from Keith with a sad expression on his face.

“I have a present for you! I made it in class, and Shiro helped me write my full name and address on the back so that you can come over for a playdate sometime!” Keith quickly found the picture and dusted the sand off the paper. He held it out to Lance so he could take it.

Lance swam a little closer to the shore, avoiding eye contact with Keith. “I-I can’t take your gift, Keith. My mom will get mad at me!”

“Why would she get mad at you? Is she scared of Hippos?”

“N-No, we just...don’t have anywhere to put it at home,” Lance said before looking down at the water forlornly.

Keith teared up a little. He had worked so hard on the picture for his friend. He bit the inside of his cheek as he pouted at the sand and nodded. "O-Okay, I understand...I gotta go to school now,” Keith mumbled shoving all of his things back in his bookbag.

“Maybe you could keep it in your bookbag for school?” Shiro blurted, hoping to find a way for Lance to be able to accept Keith’s gift.

Lance sighed a little, taking another glance at Keith, who was trying his best not to cry in front of his new friend. “My bookbag’s all wet and messy, and I don’t want it to get crumpled,” Lance murmured as he kept his eyes on the blue water.

“We can have it laminated for you! That'll make it waterproof! And it’ll keep it from getting crumpled, too!” Shiro smiled at Lance, walked over to Keith, and gave his brother a hug, trying to comfort him.

Lance raised his eyebrow and swam a little closer to the shore. “Laminated? What’s that?”

“It’s when a piece of paper is put between two sheets of plastic and stuck together so that the paper inside is protected from tearing or getting wet. We can bring it back all nice and waterproof for you!”

Keith sniffled a little and pulled away from Shiro’s hug. He wiped his nose against the rough sleeve of his shirt and looked at Lance hopefully.

Lance nodded slowly, eyeing the pair of brothers thoughtfully. “Okay, I’ll wait for you guys.”

Keith smiled widely as he quickly put his backpack on. He excitedly waved goodbye to Lance with one hand and pulled Shiro along to school with the other. He led Shiro along as fast as his little legs could pull him.

At school, they got Lance’s present laminated, twice for Keith's peace of mind, and gave it to Lance without any issues. However, when Keith came running down to the lake on his way to school the following day, Lance wasn’t there again. Keith quietly started tearing up. He didn’t understand! This was the second time his friend had left him. Did Lance not want to be friends? Once Shiro caught up with him, he quietly walked over and rubbed Keith's back gently.

“Do you want me to take you home? I can tell Mom and Dad you have a tummy ache.”  
Keith nodded, reaching out a shaky hand to grab Shiro’s He was trying his best not to cry. Keith could feel the sobs building in his throat and his eyes watering.

As the brothers quietly walked home, neither of them said a word. The only noise between them was Keith’s quiet sniffling. Shiro called his parents and tucked Keith in for a nap on the couch.

Lance never showed up at the lake again.


	2. High School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance shows back up when Keith is in High School and something...different begins to blossom

Years later, Keith was now in Highschool; he had mostly forgotten about Lance, but everytime he passed the lake he subconsciously hoped that his old friend would be there waiting for him. He was one of the top students in his class with a handful of good friends and a passion for aquatic biology, specifically in lakes. 

Keith got out of bed and stretched out all the sleep from the night before with a loud groan. Within a few minutes, he was dressed and out the door on his way to school. Shiro was away at college now, so Keith had to make his daily trek to school alone. Usually he’d drown out the loneliness with earbuds, but today he decided he’d rather listen to the morning birds chirping. On his walk to school, he watched for the birds in the treetops. He heard a faint singing voice coming from near the lake. When Keith looked over to investigate the sound, his jaw dropped as in the middle of the lake dancing and singing was his old friend Lance. Before he could even think, his feet were already running as fast as they could towards Lance.

Once he got to the lake, Keith dropped his bookbag, kicked off his shoes, and yanked off each sock. He carefully walked as far as he could into the lake without getting his pants wet.

“Lance!” he cried “Where did you go? I almost forgot you.”

Lance sighed sinking into the water up to his eyes. He looked nervous, almost scared. Keith didn’t mind waiting for a response; he needed time to examine Lance’s face. Observe the changes. His eyes seemed to be brighter now— more of a pale baby blue— and his shoulders were broader.   
“Me and my mom moved away for awhile. She got a new job so we had to move far, far away,” Lance replied. Something about what he said didn’t seem honest, but Keith chose to ignore that feeling to keep the conversation going.

“I-I thought you didn’t wanna hang out with me anymore…” 

“Of course I wanted to hang out with you!” Lance shouted, defensively jumping up a little. “My mom just made me move away! I missed you everyday!” 

Keith started crying, moving back and sitting down in the sand and wiping his eyes. School could wait. Catching up with his long lost friend was more important. 

“It’s been so long, I don’t even know where to start…” Keith mumbled, gently running his fingers through the sand. 

Once he finally started to talk, he couldn’t stop; he was rambling about everything that popped into his head, and Lance listened the whole time. Keith drew little doodles in the sand as he talked, the sand scraping away at the skin on his fingertips. When he stopped to take a breath, the sun was setting, the orange and purples in the sky illuminating Lance from behind and accentuating his messy hair and muscular shoulders. 

“Uh...I’ve been rambling all day haven’t I? I’m sorry, I just missed you so much…” 

“No! Don’t apologize! I love listening to what you have to say! Your voice is really soft and calming, and everything you say is interesting,” Lance mumbled, a blush high on his cheeks.

Keith chuckled a little, his cheeks becoming rosy too; Lance looked cute when he was embarrassed. 

“I should probably get going...gotta explain to my parents why I wasn’t at school.” Keith chuckled, getting up and dusting the sand off his pants. “...Promise I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Lance nodded with a giant grin. “I’m not going anywhere, bud!” 

Keith smiled widely, nodding a little before running off back home. His parents were gonna kill him. Maybe they’d believe that he had the shits and was stuck in the bathroom all day?

When he got home, his parents, of course, were furious that he’d skipped school. They gave him a long angry talk full of threats of grounding and accusations of being disrespectful. In the end, they settled on 2 weeks without the TV or his phone. They still needed to be able to get into contact with him, so dad gave him Shiro’s old flip phone. The screen half was barely hanging on, and the volume buttons were missing, but all that mattered was that it made calls. Despite all the punishments and bad blood between him and his parents, Keith didn’t feel a shred of regret. He got to talk to his long lost friend for the entire day, and that was worth a thousand groundings.  
Keith spent dinner in silence, listening to his parents’ conversation while he picked at his peas and mashed potatoes. Coincidentally, he ended up being the first to finish dinner and excuse himself from the table. He ran up to his bedroom calling Shiro. 

“Hey, mom. What’s-”

“Shut up, it’s Keith; I got my phone taken away. I gotta tell you something though!” 

“Oh? What’s going on?” Shiro asked with a cautious voice.

“Do you remember Lance? The boy in the lake that I used to hang out with everyday?” 

“Uhhh, yeah, yeah, I remember him. What about him?”

“Well, he came back, and he’s really sweet and cute and nice, and--and I accidentally skipped school to talk to him all day.”

“What do you mean you accidentally skipped school to talk to him?” Shiro asked in a concerned voice. 

“Well, I sat down on the beach to talk to him, and then when I realized what time it was, the sun was already setting…” Keith grabbed his pillow, hugging it to his chest tightly.

“Keith, you gotta be more aware of your surroundings so this doesn’t happen again. Look, I gotta go study, but text me if you need anything, okay?”

Keith sighed quietly. “Okay, bye, don't be a hoe.”

“Don't be a troublemaker,” Shiro responded with a chuckle before hanging up.

Keith put his substitute phone on his bedside table and buried his face into his pillow. He wanted to talk more to Shiro about Lance, but it's not his fault that he's in college. After a few minutes of sulking and mumbling curses at his brother and the universe, Keith went and got ready for bed. He texted his friend Hunk about what he missed in class so he could get a head start on it before he went to school the following day.

The next morning, he woke up on top of his homework, which— surprise surprise— wasn’t finished. Keith quickly got up and shoved his homework into his backpack, zipping the pocket harshly. His parents gave him a hard time about not missing school again and getting his back grades up. Keith grinned and beared it up until it was time to start walking to school. He rushed out the door and anxiously ran to go meet Lance at the lake. He ran as fast as he could over to the lake, arriving out of breath and sweaty.

Thankfully, Lance was still at the lake, and Keith set out a sigh of relief as he walked out to shore.

“Hey, stranger,” Keith said with a happy chuckle.

“Hey, Keith! I missed you!” Lance responded with a smile.

“I missed you too,” Keith said. “How was your night?”

“It was okay! Some strangers tried to bother me, but I scared them off.” 

“Someone broke into your house? Oh my god, are you okay?” Keith asked with a concerned gasp.

Lance looked at him confused before a sudden rush of realization ran over him.

“Oh! Yeah! I’m fine. It was just some drunk idiots outside my house…” 

“That still must have been pretty scary...You sure you’re alright?” Keith asked, trying his best not to sit in the sand.

“I’m fine! Don’t you have school? Get going before you get in trouble, and I’ll see you after, okay?” 

Keith checked his phone for the time before sighing defeatedly. 

“I’ll definitely see you after school! Have a good day!” He waved goodbye to Lance before jogging to school.

Keith made it to his first class with seconds left to spare. Conveniently, they also had a substitute in place of their normal homeroom teacher. This substitute was everyone’s favorite; she was old, slow to get started, and didn’t care too much about what the students did before the bell rang. Of course, everyone took advantage of that, including Keith, who decided to sit next to Hunk instead of in his own seat.

“What took you so long?” Hunk whispered while the substitute took attendance.

“I met up with a friend,” Keith said, getting out his half finished homework. “Now help me finish the homework for fourth period.”

Hunk sighed, shaking his head before pulling out his copy of the homework. “Just don’t make it too obvious, okay? Last time, I had to redo the whole extended response because you wrote it down basically word for word.” 

Keith had already started copying his homework and stopped listening. He didn't even hear the sub call his name, and Hunk had to point him out to the sub. By the end of the class, Keith had all of his homework and classwork from yesterday done. Which was great because half of it was due in his next period.

Like usual, school was long and boring and full of teachers scolding Keith for not having an absent note for yesterday. He was okay with that all for once though. He knew that at the end of the day he’d get to see Lance again. As soon as the final bell rang, Keith bolted out of the school doors, sprinting as fast as he could to get to the lake. His heart fluttered when he saw Lance in the lake; the sun shone down on Lance’s face revealing his all his freckles and giving his hair a golden outline. He looked so...beautiful— wait, did Keith just think a boy was beautiful? 

“Keith!” Lance shouted excitedly when he saw Keith.

Keith quickly snapped out of his head and smiled. “Lance! I’m glad you’re still here. I was worried you’d disappear again.”

“Of course not, I’ll always be waiting for you right here in this lake,” Lance said, quickly swimming closer to the shore so he and Keith could talk.

Keith smiled, sitting in the sand as close to the shore as he could without getting his clothes soaked.

“So, what did you do all day while I was at school?” Keith asked. 

“Oh, uh, I just kinda chilled in the lake all day like usual.”

“Wow, you really like swimming don’t you? That seems like all you ever do.” 

“Well.” Lance visibly got uncomfortable looking down at the water. “I, uh, grew up in California! Right by the coast, so my family took me swimming all the time, and it makes me feel at home.” 

“That’s...really sweet.” Keith giggled.

Lance blushed, gently rubbing the skin on his own fingers. “Thanks…what about you though? How was your day?”

“Eh, it was okay. Pretty boring like usual. I got to talk to my best friend a lot though so that was pretty cool.” 

Lance cocked his head in confusion. “Best friend…? I thought I was your best friend…”

“You are!” Keith laughed. “People can have more than one best friend.”

“Oh! Good!” He perked up, smiling brightly.

Keith blushed. God, that smile was beautiful. He wanted to burn the image into his memory so that he’d always have that smile with him. 

The boys continued to talk for hours, both blushing, giggling, and even playfully flirting at times. They were cut off when Keith’s phone rang; his mom was calling to tell him that dinner would be done soon and that he needs to come home. He said his goodbyes to Lance and hesitantly walked home, quietly praying in the back of his mind that Lance would be there once he passed by the lake the next morning.

From then on, Keith and Lance started hanging out everyday before and after school for a month, but it felt different from when they were kids. When they looked in each others eyes, they sometimes couldn’t look away. Every word out of Lance’s mouth made Keith’s heart flutter, and the atmosphere around them was what Keith could only describe as bubbly. Many sleepless nights and questioning days and depression naps later, Keith figured out and accepted that Lance made him feel that way because he had a crush on him. He thought Lance felt the same way, but what if he was wrong? Hunk eventually convinced him to go for it, for better or for worse. 

Keith wore a nice pair of jeans and a red button up to school on the day he was planning to ask Lance out on a date after school, and he couldn’t focus at school, nervously shaking the whole day. Once the end of the day rolled around, Keith slowly made his way over to the lake, quietly practicing what he wanted to say to Lance over and over again on his way there. 

“Keith!” Lance shouted excitedly, waving at him.

“Hey…” Keith shouted back, his heart racing faster as he saw Lance’s beautiful smile.

“Well, someone’s all dressed up today! You look nice. Red’s a good color on you.” 

Keith blushed, nervously playing with the strap of his backpack. “Thanks. I, uh, have something to ask you…”

“Oh?” Lance asked, tilting his head curiously, “What is it?”

“Um, I was wondering if you’d like to...go on a date with me...Saturday?”

Lance’s eyes lit up with joy “Yes! Of course! I’d love to go on a date with you! We should have it right here at the lake! Since this is where we met and all,” he rambled on.

Keith smiled happily. “Really? That’s great! I— that sounds amazing. I can ask my mom to help me make a picnic for us.” 

“That sounds so amazing and romantic!” Lance said, gleefully spinning around over and over in the water. 

“I’m gonna run home right now so that me and my mom can plan for everything! I’ll see you later!” Keith waved goodbye and excitedly ran the rest of the way home.

Saturday morning crept up on Keith, and he was both nervous and excited. He had stayed up all night making Lance a beautiful gift that he was excited about. Just as planned, Keith’s mom helped him get dressed, make the picnic food, and pack it up. It was around noon when Keith showed up at the lake, and when he did? Lance didn’t look any different, but somehow he looked even more beautiful than when he saw him last. 

“You look absolutely stunning…” Keith said as he arrived at the shore, not wasting any time in laying down the picnic blanket.

“Well, I don’t look half as good as you, babe,” Lance said with a blush.

Keith sat down on the blanket and set out the picnic, which included spaghetti, salad, and an empty vase. 

“I have a gift for you. I was up all night making it,” Keith said, smiling.

“Keith, you didn’t have to do that...you already made the picnic and everything!” 

Keith pulled out a singular, blue crochet rose from his back pocket and put it in the empty vase. “I remembered blue was your favorite color, and I wanted to give you a rose…”

“It’s beautiful, thank you so much!” Lance smiled affectionately at him, the fond attention causing Keith to blush.

The boys enjoyed their picnic, laughing, talking, and endlessly complementing one another. By the time the sun was setting, they quietly held hands, just watching and enjoying their first date. Keith felt that it was kinda strange that Lance didn’t even leave the water but he decided to brush it off. Once the sun was completely gone, replaced by the moon, and Keith had spent enough time admiring Lance in the moonlight, they awkwardly leaned in and softly pecked each other on the lips before saying their goodbyes. Keith and Lance continued to go on dates just about every week for a month, but every date was at that same lake.

Keith showed up at the lake unannounced late on a Sunday night after one of their dates.  
“Keith? What’re you doing here? I thought you needed to go home because of the storm?” Lance asked with concern in his voice

“Lance, we need to talk.” Keith sighed tiredly. 

“What about…?” Lance asked, swimming close to the shore.

“It just...it feels like you’re hiding stuff from me.”

“Keith, why would I hide anything from you? I trust you more than anyone else I’ve ever met,” Lance said, heartbroken.

“Then why does it feel like I don’t know anything about you!” Keith shouted. “We’ve been friends for years, and I don’t know where your house is, what your family’s like— fuck, the only thing I know about you is that you apparently live in this damn lake! Why are you lying to me, Lance? I was getting ready to tell you I love you…”

Thunder boomed as the dark clouds began pouring rain.

Tears began streaming down Lance’s face. “I can’t tell you...I want to so fucking, bad but I can’t! You won’t love me anymore!”

“That’s insane, Lance! The only thing making me question if I love you is all the li-”

“I’m a mermaid!” Lance spoke, cutting him off. “I’m a mermaid, and I can’t leave the lake, and I couldn’t tell you because I was so so scared you’d think I’m weird or not believe me. But it’s true! Look!” 

He quickly pulled himself up onto the beach, revealing a beautiful blue mermaid tail that sparkled in the moonlight.

Keith stared at the tail in shock. He couldn’t think of anything to say. He just left, ignoring the crying objections as Lance begged him not to go. He stayed up all night thinking about everything, angrily punching his wall, crying. Once the sun shone up through the window, Keith had accepted that his love was a mermaid, and he was ready to tell Lance he loved him for real. Keith could do this. It wasn’t Lance’s fault he was a mermaid. It had hurt like hell that Lance hadn’t told him sooner, but Keith could understand to an extent. He rushed out the door, sprinting as fast as he could to the lake, but once he got to the lake, Lance was nowhere to be found. The only trace left of him was that little crochet rose that was partially buried in the sand on the beach.


	3. College

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith moved on with his life since Lance left again...or did he?

Keith was now in his third year of college and still living in his hometown; as much as he wanted to run away to some fancy college and forget all about Lance, he just couldn't bring himself to leave this town. He found a decent duplex with cheap rent that was unfortunately close to the lake. On a late night where Keith was pulling an all nighter to finish an essay, he heard a knock on the door. Keith grabbed the small knife that he kept next to his bed. Maybe it was his neighbor? She was a tiny 80 year old woman living on her own, and she often asked Keith to help her with things around her house. 

“Hello? Mrs. Phillips? Is that you?” he asked, putting his hand on the door handle.

No response.

Keith slowly opened the door a little peeking through the crack. It was Lance, but something was different this time. He had legs. Keith swung open the door and grabbed Lance’s shoulders.

“Lance? Is that really you? What are you doing here?” Keith questioned in a panic.

Lance smiled weakly. “Kei-” His eyes rolled back into his head, and he fainted in Keith’s arms.

Keith quickly dragged Lance inside laying him down on the couch before nervously pacing the room. What was he going to do? His long lost boyfriend just showed up at his house in the middle of the night unannounced! And his boyfriend had legs! Really… really nice legs. Keith blinked, shaking his head in confusion at himself.

“Maybe I’m just hallucinating from staying up all night? I’m gonna...sleep.” 

He quietly cleaned up his study materials and went to bed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to sleep at all as his mind wouldn’t stop racing.

Once the sun came up, Keith heard shuffling around his house. God, it wasn’t a hallucination. He carefully got out of bed and went into the living room. Lance was curiously poking around at the things sprawled across Keith’s house, and he looked stronger, more rugged than he had when Keith was in high school, and he was wearing nothing but a torn, dirty white cloth tied around his hips. 

“Lance…?” Keith called quietly from his bedroom door.

“Keith!” Lance said, fumbling over to him and giving him a tight hug. “Your new house is so interesting! There’s so much to look at! It must have been expensive for all this stuff!”

Keith gently hugged Lance back. “Hey, uh, I’m pretty much still in shock over all this, so why don’t you go put some clothes on, and we’ll sit down at the table and talk about everything, okay?” 

Lance pulled away, nodding, and Keith pulled him into the bedroom and pulled out an old band t-shirt and some boxers for Lance to borrow. He rushed out of the room as soon as he gave the clothes to Lance and anxiously sat at the table. After a couple of minutes, Lance stumbled over and took a seat next to Keith, grabbing his hand and gently rubbing the back of it with his thumb.

“Oh,” Keith said surprised at the touch. “Um, first of all, I thought you were a mermaid? What happened to your tail?”

“After that fight we had, I started looking into ways that I could get legs so that I could be with you! I found an old spell book, and I did the ritual; I think I did it wrong though because there’s this third leg between the other two.” Lance reached down to try and show Keith, but he quickly stopped him.

“No, no, no, no! That’s supposed to be there.”

“Oh! Okay, good! Anyway, I got my legs, and I came back to you so that we can be together! I love you!” Lance said in a bright and hopeful voice.

“But how did you even find where I live? How did you get here from the lake? How did you even get into the lake in the first place?” Keith stammered.

“I have very good intuition, so I could just sense where you were, and after years of watching you walk over to me at the lake, I just kinda tried to do what I remembered you doing.” He smiled. “And there’s a portal! From my kingdom to the lake! I found it when I was little, but I didn’t know how to open or close it, and when I figured it out, I didn’t have time to say goodbye.”

Keith sighed, avoiding eye contact. “Lance...what about your family? Aren’t you going to miss them?”

“Of course I’ll miss them, but I’ll be able to manage because I have you. My boyfriend.” Lance grabbed Keith’s other hand, squeezing them both tightly.

“Lance,” Keith sighed, speaking as gently as possible, “that’s not— you can’t just disappear for five years and expect me to just fall back in love with you and wanna be with you immediately...I need time to think.”

“Oh...okay,” Lance mumbled letting go of Keith’s hands. “Can I still stay here in your house? I don’t have anywhere else to go…”

“Of course you can, just give me a little space, okay?”

Lance nodded, looking at the floor. “Okay.”

“Now, I gotta go to school. Just don’t tear the house apart, and help yourself to the food in the fridge if you get hungry. I’ll be back later tonight.”

Keith got up, grabbed his backpack and his keys, and left for school. 

At school, he couldn’t even think of anything else but Lance and what he wanted. Keith really, really wanted to be with him, but he was also terrified of Lance disappearing yet again. Keith continued this routine of fighting his own mind, questioning what he wanted to do with Lance for about a week before he finally made his decision.

Keith sat Lance down at the kitchen table. “Look, I really wanna be with you. I really, really wanna try again, but I’m just terrified that you’re gonna disappear again. You have to show me I can trust you and make me fall in love with you again.” 

“I promise, Keith. I promise that I’ll never ever disappear on you again. I love you so, so, so, so much, and I’ll do everything I can to show you that. Thank you for giving me a second chance. You have no idea how much it means to me.” Lance grabbed Keith’s hand and started kissing it all over, causing Keith to blush.

“You have to promise me one more thing,” he said with a smile.

“Yes, of course, anything!”

“Promise me you’ll never go back into that lake.” Keith laughed before grabbing Lance by the collar and yanking him in for a deep, passionate kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading my story!!! I have plenty more Klance fics in the works and I'll most likely be coming back to this one to fix it up in the future! Stay tuned 

**Author's Note:**

> Do you wanna support me? Here's how!  
> [Support Page](http://kaenanmatsuura.tumblr.com/post/183097613446/do-you-wanna-support-me-heres-how)


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